Saturday, February 23, 2013

THE DEVIL COMMANDS - "The Iron Hand Of Horror" (1941)

"The Devil Commands" is a freaky little picture! First off, there's no Devil in it, or even any reference to one, except in the title that I noticed!

It's actually about a poor misguided man searching for a way to reunite himself with a deceased person he loves more than anything, who, in this case, just happens to be his wife!

Boris Karloff is that man, a role he always plays so well! His name this go round is Dr. Julian Blair!

Dr. Blair is experimenting with brain waves, and communication without speaking!

One dark and dreary night his wife is accidently killed while she is sitting in a parked car waiting for him in the pouring rain!

Dr. Blair is a wreck himself after that incident and horribly distraught!

Firmly believing there is a path to the other side, Dr. Blair seeks solace with the local medium Mrs. Blanche Walters played by the Oscar Winning Anne (SCUDDA HOO! SCUDDA HAY!) Revere! I was going to make a joke that she was Paul Revere's wife, but then I found out that she was actually Paul Revere's descendant!

Dr. Blair wastes no time proving that Mrs. Walters is a phony, but yet he still believes she has more moxie than your run of the mill fake medium, and decides to invite her back to his mad lab for some further experimentation!

Mrs. Walters is a tough bird! Dr. Blair shoots ten thousand volts through her, but just like a Timex watch, she takes a licking and comes back ticking!

The two of them with the help of Dr. Blair's slightly warped assistant Karl, move to an old mansion and set up shop anew with the help of a few dead locals! Karl was played by Cy Schindell, who despite only living to the age of 41 before succumbing to cancer, was able to wrack up 152 acting credits including quite a few "Three Stooges" shorts!

Dorthy (Hot Rod Rumble) Adams as Mrs. Marcy the maid is just about to bite off a whole lot more than she can chew! Snooping around just doesn't pay!!

Whoa! A Dead body inside some kind of rockin' robot getup, what gives around this joint! AAaaaahhhh!!!

Right about here, this movie gets real creepy as all the bodies kind of come alive and start gyrating and bouncing around like a bunch of robots in some mad electric poker party!

The surge of electricity is way too much for Mrs. Marcy, so now Dr. Blair has really got a murder on his hands! Before it was just stealing bodies, but now they've actually killed somebody!

The local law enforcement was already suspicious, but when Mrs. Marcy doesn't come back home from work, her husband demands that the law investigates things a little further! Sherriff Ed Willis is played by Kenneth (Punchy Cowpunchers) MacDonald, and Seth Marcy is played by Walter (The first "Floyd The Barber") Baldwin!

Blanche Walters goes on one last wild ride! Aaiiieeee!!!!

Dr. Blair has now totally lost it, and is willing to sacrifice his loving daughter's life just to be able to speak to his dead wife again! Anne Blair was played by Amanda Duff! This film must have been enough for Amanda who called it quits after only 8 acting credits! After what they did to her in this film, you can't hardly blame her!

After the locals storm the house just like in a "Frankenstein" movie, Dr. Blair gives it one last final attempt! He's getting so close he can almost taste it!

But instead of success, the whole place crumbles down around him! What a weird movie, simple, short at 65 minutes, and very effective, but I still don't think they should blame the devil!

DWRAYGER DUNGEON PRESENTS: The Monster Movie Music Manifesto

Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Spy, Super-Hero, JD, Thriller and Noir films, that's what we like, and a recurring theme in a lot of those kinds of movies has always been music! There were rockin' clubs and cafes with cool jukeboxes, teen poolside parties with local bands, sometimes it was a seedy bar with a sleazy torch singer, a beatnik coffeehouse, maybe dancing somewhere in outer space, or some weird tribal ceremony on a cool secluded island with giant monsters running around, and you could count on it that a lot of the time there was smoking and drinking going on. It was a fun time!! A lot of movies also had quirky, swingin', jazzy or rockin' themes or credits, or maybe just some wild Psychotronic elements! We started with the music from 50's & 60's Monster Movies, but we later morphed into the new, bigger and better, Rock and Soul, 70's brevity, 80's maybes, 1940's Gorilla and Bela site from Hell! So, sit down, and take a load off, pour yourself a cool one, and order up something hot and greasy, because we have a lot of tasty tidbits on the menu, way outside the realm of good taste! If any of the postings just happen to step on anybody's toes, let us know & we will remove them immediately, if not sooner!! We recognize all formal copyrights, and do this solely to support and promote the films featured! This forum is only being presented in a critical and scholarly critique, and should not be construed as anything else. It's just all for Fun & Historical Education in an effort to keep bad taste alive forever!!! If the words and pictures pique your interest, then please go out & buy, or rent the movies, wherever you can find them! All soundclips are approximately two minutes long, just enough to give you a feel for the movie! When we post a sound clip, it will only stay up 30 days or less!

Here are some good places to start your search for hard to find cult films on the internet: